Who Participates in Collective Petitions in Rural China?

This article examines the question of why the risks posed by collective petitioning in China deter some villagers from participating but not others. Based on the statistical analysis of an original dataset and an ethnographic study of one case, this article finds that higher household income is the only significant factor that increases a villager's probability to participate in collective petitions. Economic security empowers a peasant's political participation. Contrary to the existing literature, being a demobilized soldier does not significantly increase a villager's probability to participate in collective petitions. The implication of this finding is that petitioning as a form of 'managed participation' in Chinese politics may face more and more challenges if the average Chinese household income continues to grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]